Hey Girl, Lets Make an “Easy Custom Frame”

Yo!
I’m a little late today…

It’s a snow day here in Michigan.
That means we all got to sleep in.
Yah, right.
Hard to sleep when the school district calls every cell phone,
the house phone, and texts each one as well.
What happened to the days where you had to get up at 5am and pray for your school to scroll across the bottom of the TV screen?

We have about 7 inches of snow.  Big whoop.
Although, I am looking forward to going out later with the girls to play in it.

Last night while checking out the weather on here,
I came across a super cute link party from Kelly, at “View Along the Way”
where wives (mostly bloggers) share
some “Hey-Girl-ified” photos of their husbands.

The “Hey Girl” theme is a rather funny way of expressing how thankful
we are for the support of our husbands.
They put up with a lot, and Rick is no exception.

This goes along perfect with my post today that is
actually dedicated to my one and only Valentine…

Wait!  That’s not Rick.
Here’s my Ricky baby…
(by the way, Rick has a great sense of humor, and these are meant to be funny

Happy Valentine’s Day Richard.
I couldn’t be the Redhead I am without your constant support and understanding.
Not once have you complained about my many messes, crazy ideas, or late night disappearing acts.  When I get discouraged, you pick me up.  When I get tired, you let me rest.  When I need your help, you never refuse.
When I complain, you tell me to shut up.

You are my ROCK!

With all this mushy stuff, I almost forgot about the project.
Here’s what I have been working on.
Rick helped of course.

This is our master bathroom before we did our “affordable makeover”.
You can find that “here“.

The framed poster is what I would like to tell you about.
It was a gift from Rick on Valentine’s Day in 2004.
Sure flowers and diamonds are beautiful,
but this said more.  Way more.
I fell in love with it, and what it meant instantly.

This poster is a Robert Doisneau photo taken in Paris in 1950.
The subjects were photographed on a busy street in
Paris and were oblivious to their surroundings.
Ricky is a charmer, can ya tell?

I finally decided to move the framed poster,
and in the process I took off the frame because it began to break.
I was worried at first, but realized the poster was actually a poster board.
So, I found a new spot for it in our bedroom without the frame.
I just used little tiny nails and nailed it to the wall.
I liked it, but knew I would add to it later.

By the way…
now would be a good time for me to tell you that my
bedroom is no longer green.
Thank goodness, right?

Stay tuned for a HUGE bedroom reveal next week.
For now though, I can show you what we did to the picture.

First, I hired some sassy girls to beat up some 1×6 boards
we had left over from our kitchen beams.
That was fun, but Valerie and I hurt our hands a little.
We got a little bit carried away with the hammers.
Geesh…guess we had some pent up energy.
We also added our initials to add some personal charm.

Next, I hired Rick to measure the poster,
and cut the wood on a 45 degree angle so the ends will match up
like a manufactured frame.

Then I used black stain (Minwax Wood Finish in Ebony)
as a first coat and let the stain get into all of the nooks.
This really worked well.

Finally, I stained it with 3 coats (Minwax Wood finish in Mahogany), and topped it off with a coat of polyurethane.

When it was completely dry, Rick nailed it to the wall with small nails.
These can easily be removed if I decide to move the frame.

Finally…the finished product.

I can’t show you the entire transformation yet,
that will come next Friday when I reveal our master bedroom makeover.
I can’t wait.

Until then,

Je vais à Paris.
à plus tard!


Love,
Julie